Improved cable-stopper



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES ROBINSON, OF BARNEGAT, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVED CABLE-STOPPER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,109, dated December9, 1862.

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMEs IoniNsoN, of Barnegat, in the county of Oceanand State of New Jersey, have invented a new and Improved Oable-Stopper;and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription of the same, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, forming a part of this specification, in which- Figure lrepresents a longitudinal vertical section of my invention, the plane ofsection being indicated by the line m x, Fig. 2. Eig. 2 is a plan or topview of the same. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section of the claw, the lineg/ y, Fig. l, indicating the 'plane of section. Fig.

- 4 is a sectional elevation of the bow of a vessel, showing theapplication of my device to the cable.

Similar letters of reference in the several Views indicate correspondingparts.

This invention consists in the arrangement of a hinged forked claw, theshank of which is connected to and operated by a footelever in such amanner that the claw when brought to catch over a link of the cableretains the same firmly and prevents it running out, and that bydepressing` the foot-lever the shank of the claw is released and thecable freed.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe it with reference to the drawings.

A represents a claw made of steelor other suitable material, and forkedso that it. catches over one and between the ends of the adjoininglinks, as clearly shown in Fig. l, where the links ofthe cable areindicated in red outline. This claw is secured by a pivot, c, to acurved rod or stern, B, which is fastened by a rope to the forecastle orspar-deck, according to position of the hawseholes, as shown in Fig. 4:The shank b of the forked claw A catches under a dog, O, which isconnected to the rod B by a pivot, c, and which passes through a slot,d, in said rod. This slot is made of such width that the dog O has roomto swing backward and forward, and if the dog is in its forward positionit retains the shank of the claw, as shown in Fig. l, but if the upperend of said dog is thrown in the direction of the arrow marked near itin Fig. l, the shank of the claw is released. The dog O is operated by afoot-lever, which connects with the upper end of said dog by a pivot, e,and which is subjected to the action of a spring, j', whereby the dog isprevented'releasing the claw spontaneously. Then it is desired to stopthe cable, the claw A is made to catch over one and between the twoadjoining links, and the dog C is brought in such a position that itretains the shank of the claw. In order to release the cable, thefoot-lever D is slightly depressed and pushed forward, thereby dis-@Dgilging the shank of the claw from the dog, and the strain of thecable itself throws the forked end of the claw upand the cable is freed.lThe dog Gis prevented releasing the shank of the claw spontaneously bya recess, g, 111 the upper surface of the rod B, which retains thei'ootlever, and prevents the same moving forward towardthe claw end ofthe rod until,by depressing the rear end or treadle, the point of saidlever is raised so as to clear the recess g and permit of moving thefoot-lever forward.

The opertion of my cable-stopper is Very simple, it can be easily put upso that it is not in the way, it can easily be removed when not used,and it is cheap and simple in its construction and not liableto get ontof repair.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire tosecure by Let- JAMES ROBINSON.

Vitnesses:

TiMoTHY SHINE, M. S. PARTEIDGE.

